Virgin Galactic Acquires Full Ownership of The Spaceship Company

October 05, 2012 06:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time

MOJAVE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virgin
Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, today announced
that it has taken 100% ownership of its sister company, The Spaceship
Company (TSC), by acquiring the 30% stake held by Scaled Composites
(Scaled) since TSC’s formation under a joint venture with Virgin
Galactic.

This acquisition, details of which are not being disclosed, marks the
successful completion of a long-term strategy and signifies the end of
the first phase of TSC’s development. During this development phase, TSC
completed the build out of manufacturing and assembly facilities in
Mojave, CA, established a specialized workforce and transitioned
necessary assets from Scaled in order to begin building Virgin
Galactic’s commercial fleet of WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft and
SpaceShipTwo (SS2) manned sub-orbital spacecraft. These vehicles will be
utilized for Virgin Galactic’s planned spaceline operations which will
be based at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.

The completion of the acquisition comes as Virgin Galactic and Scaled
begin to plan the handover of the SS2 development program to Virgin
Galactic, with Scaled remaining fully committed to the final portion of
the WK2 and SS2 test flight programs prior to Virgin Galactic commencing
commercial operations.

Virgin Galactic, owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin
Group and aabar
Investments PJS, is on track to be the world’s first commercial
spaceline. The new spaceship (SpaceShipTwo, VSSEnterprise)
and carrier craft (WhiteKnightTwo, VMS Eve) have both been
developed for Virgin Galactic by Mojave-based Scaled
Composites. The
Spaceship Company, a new aerospace production company founded by
Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, is building the fleet of vehicles
for Virgin Galactic. Founded by Burt Rutan, Scaled developed
SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 claimed the $10m Ansari X Prize as the
world’s first privately developed manned spacecraft. Virgin Galactic’s
new vehicles share much of the same basic design, but are being built to
carry six customers, or the equivalent scientific research payload, on
sub-orbital space flights, allowing an out-of-the-seat, zero-gravity
experience and offering astounding views of the planet from the black
sky of space for tourist astronauts and a unique microgravity platform
for researchers. The VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve test
flight program is well under way, leading to Virgin Galactic commercial
operations, which will be based at Spaceport
America in New Mexico.

Scaled Composites, LLC is an aerospace and specialty composites
development company located in Mojave, California. Founded in 1982 by
Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites has broad experience in air vehicle
design, tooling and manufacturing, specialty composite structure design,
analysis and fabrication, and developmental flight tests of air and
space vehicles. In 2007, Northrop Grumman Corporation, through its
wholly-owned subsidiary, Allied Holdings, Inc., acquired Scaled
Composites, which today continues to operate as a separate company
focused on innovative, out-of-the-box aerospace solutions.

Headquartered at Mojave Air and Space Port, The Spaceship Company is the
aerospace production company, founded by Virgin Galactic and Scaled
Composites, which is building the world’s first fleet of commercial
spaceships (SpaceShipTwos) and carrier aircraft (WhiteKnightTwos)
intended to make regular, commercial, manned space travel a reality.